I spend a lot of time snapping photos of the trains I see. I ride the NM Railrunner commuter train a few times a week, so I’m near train yards often. I also cross over the Belen railyard once a week, typically on foot, as I mentioned in a previous post.

This week, however, I took a few photos of the switching engines in the Albuquerque lot. Unfortunately, in the early morning hours and cloudy conditions, all of the photos were blurry.

One of these days, I need to get permission to enter the old engine shops. They are quite a landmark!

Hopefully, I will post something besides train pictures next week. I have been reading the SIA Journal that has been sitting on my desk for several months, and have been enjoying that. I will probably finish that up in the near future and will post about it, perhaps this week or next week.

A few nights ago, I was commuting home on the train and I saw a pair of well-behaved kids (9ish year old boy, 5ish year old girl). The ticket lady asked the girl if she wanted to sit up front and sound the horn. She just stared. The brother flailed his arms, I assumed to get her attention. Then she flailed back. Then it all made sense. The girl was deaf and they were signing back and forth. She wouldn’t be able to hear the train horn 😦

However, the ticket lady began to sign back, much more slowly. The little girl smiled.

It’s easy to forget how fortunate we are when we are healthy. It’s also easy to forget how much a seemingly simple gesture can be. The ticket lady probably doesn’t make much, and she works crazy hours, and yet she knew enough sign language to make this little girl smile.

A few mornings ago, I was commuting home on the train, and a mother, father, grandmother and 5 year old boy boarded the train. I know he was 5 because it was his birthday, and he was taking a special birthday train ride from Belen to Santa Fe. He was so excited. It was an early commuter train, from 5:50 am, and he was shouting “WOW, this train is BIG” and “CHOO CHOO!” Even with the early morning hours, everybody was happy that the birthday boy was happy.

On Tuesday afternoons, I end up walking through Belen from the St. Mary’s Catholic School to the NM Railrunner station. In doing so, I cross over the BNSF railyard bridge. This time, I walked down the southern side of the bridge, which overlooks the larger part of the switching yard.

BNSF 7178

BNSF 3867

BNSF 6663

BNSF 6160, BNSF 6864

SF 1770

As I mentioned in last week’s post, watching the trains is always fun for me. I would say it is part of the reason I became interested in Industrial Archeology. I was interested in trains as a kid, and would count the number of cars on each one I saw. It fascinated me that there were so many specialty cars for specific purposes.